Conveying apparatus for disintegrated material.



L. ELLMAN. CONVEYING APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATED MATERIAL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I6. ISJIBv 4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

mvam'on v Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

1.. ELLIVIAN.

CONVEYING APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATED MATERIAL.

APPLICATIQN FILED MAY 16. 1918.

Patented Mar. 4, 1919. '4 SHEETS-SHEET 2 FIEE.

INVENTOR L. ELLMAN.

CONVEYING APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATED MATERIAL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 16, 1918. 1,296,497. Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

' 4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

FIEQ.

INVENTOR f' A QTLLA L. ELLMAN.

CONVEYING APPARATUSFOR DISINTEGRATED MATERIAL APPLICATION FILED MAY 16. 1918.

1,296,497. Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

FIE-5.5-

Llfill WITNESSES INVENTOR sm'rns TENT LOUIS ELLMAN, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE HAGAN CORPO- RATION, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

CONVEYING APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATED MATERIAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

Application filed May 16, 1918. Serial No. 234,875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS ELLMAN,

ing

gheny and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Conveying Apparatus for Disinterated Material, of which improvements the ollowing is a specification.

Ash conveyers are generally employed for removing ashes from a plurality of boiler units, the ash conveying conduit extending along the line of boilers and having openings in front of each unit through which the ashes from the furnace of such unit are fed into the conduit. In order to effect the movement of ashes along the conduit to the receiving vessel or dump, air is caused to flow along the open outer end of the conduit to the point of discharge at a high velocity. This movement of the air is due to differences of pressure between the open outer end and the discharge point or an intermediate point or points.

26 In the latter case, the movement of ashes along a portion of the conduit will be due to differences of pressure between the open end and the point or points of entrance of a jet or jets of fluid into the conduit and di- 30 rected toward the discharge end, while the movement of the air from the point or points of entrance of the jet or jets will be 'due to pushing action of the jets, but such pushing action is, in some cases, reinforced by exhausting fluid from the discharge end of the conduit by any suitable means.

Heretofore it has been customary to adjust the means employed for establishing a suflicient difference of pressure between the 40 outer end of the conduit and its discharge end, to move ashes entering the ash inlet most remote from the discharge end to such end, and hence the same power is required to shift the ashes regardless of the relation of the point of entrance of the ashes to the discharge point. This method of operation is extremely wasteful. Suppose for example a boiler plant consists of eight or ten boilresidersand requires a conduit having a horizontel length of about eighty feet, this horizontal conduit would have eight or ten inlets for ashes arranged respectively in front of each boiler. To shift ashes entering through the inlet most remote from the discharge 65 end would require about 2400 pounds of at Pittsburgh, in the county of Allesteam per hour, while to shift ashes entering the conduit at a point twenty feet nearer the discharge end would require about 2200 pounds per hour, and the shifting of ashes entering at about twenty feet from the end of the horizontal portion of the conduit would require considerably less than 1800 pounds per hour. The above figures are not exact but sufliciently so to show that the present practice of using the same amount of steam for shifting the ashes, whether the latter enter the conduit seventy or eighty feet from the discharge or only twenty feet, is very inefficient and wasteful.

The invention described herein has for its object the proportioning of the power emloyed for moving the ashes along the conduit to the distance of the points of entry of the ashes into the conduit from the point of discharge from the conduit. The invention is hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a boiler plant having an ash conveying conduit embodying my improvement arranged in operative relation to the boilers; Fig. 2. is a diagrammatic elevation showing the conduit and the controlling mechanism; Fig. 3 is a. sectional view on an enlarged scale, the plane of section being indicated by the line III-III. Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 illustrating a modification wherein the ow of fluid through the conveying conduit is controlled by the plugs or covers of the ash inlets; Fig. 5 illustrates a construction embodying an exhaust fan for causing the flow of fluid through the conduit, and Fig. 6 is a detail view.

In the practice of the invention, a conduit 1 of suitable internal diameter is arranged alon the front of a battery of boilers and is provided at points in the line with the respective ash pits with hoppers 2 for receiving and directing the ashes into the conduit. These hoppers are provided with plugs 3 adapted to seal the hoppers except when removed to permit the feed of ashes into the conduit. One end of the portion of the conduit extending horizontally along the front of the battery is open, while to the opposite end is connected a pipe 4 adapted to direct the ashes to a receptacle or to a convenient dump.

A variety of means for establishing a flow of fluid through the conduit, are employed in the art, as for example an exhaust fan 5 has its inlet connected by a pipe 6 to a receptacle 7 to which the pipe 4: leading from the one end of the conduit 1 is connected as shown in Fig. 5. It is more usual, however, to create a fiow of air through the conduit by directing jets of steam into the conduit at one or more points. In the arrangement shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a jet of steam is directed into the pipe 4 through anozzle 8 inserted through the lower end of the vertical arm of the elbow 9. According to the present practice, the fireman will open the valve controlling the flow of steam through the nozzle to cause a flow of air through the open outer end of the conduit. He will then remove the plug of the hopper in front of the pit from which the ashes are to be removed, pull the ashes from the pit and charge them into the hopper through which i a current of air also flows into the conduit. As soon as the pit is cleaned, the fireman will replace the plug'and close the steam valve, or if the removal ofashes from another pit is necessary, he will remove the plug from the hopper in front of the latter and draw the ashes therefrom. It is the practice to so .adjust the valve mechanism controlling the flow of steam to the nozzle 8 that when shifted by the fireman, it will admit steam in suflicient quantity to establish a current through the conduit capable of carrying ashes charged through the hop-' per most remote from the pipe 4 andthe same quantity of steam is employed when removing ashes from any ofthe other ash pits.

In order to avoid'such a waste of steam, provision is made for proportioning the steam in accordance with the distance the ashes are to be conveyed. To this end the valve mechanism employed for controlling the flow of steam to the nozzle 8 is so constructed as to permit of the regulation of the flow of steam, suitable means are arranged adjacent to each hopper for so shifting the regulating valve as to admit only so much steam as is necessary to create a current of air capable of carrying ashes from each particular hopper to the dis- 7 charge end of the conduit.

While the invention claimed herein is not limited to any particular or specific form of valve mechanism or operating connections,

is is preferred to employ a construction of valve mechanism described and claimed in Letters Patent No. 1,247,217 dated November 20th, 1917. As clearly set forth in said patent and as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, this valve consists of a shell 10 having an elongated inlet port 11 and a cylinder 12 having a port 13 which. is brought into register with the port 11 by a longitudinal and roadjusting screws 25.

tary movement of the cylinder. The longitudinal movement is imparted to the cylin: der by means connected to the stem 14 as hereinafter described. The rotary movement is due to the longitudinal movement and is eflected by the movement of a block 15 connected by an arm 16 to the valve stem' and slidable along a bar 17 so supported as to be capable of being adjusted to any desired angle to the valve stem, so that as the cylinder is moved longitudinally it will be rotated a distance proportional to the inclination of the bar 17. The ports 11 and 13 are so proportional and located that when brought into register by a longitudinal movement, the port 13 will be moved laterally so as to reduce the area of opening duev to the longitudinal movement, the amount of such lateral movement for a given longitudinal movement being dependent upon the inclination of the bar17.

In the construction shown in Fig. 3, the valve stem 14is connected by a link 18 to one end of a lever 19 secured to a shaft 20, which extends along parallel with the conduit as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The opposite end of the lever 19 is weighted to effect a closing movement of the valve. Suitable means are provided adjacent to each inlet hopper 'fioor of the boiler-room. When the handles are raised, they are turned ninety degrees-so as to be supported by the floor on opposite sides of the recesses. This construction insures a uniform movement of the liftin slots 22 of the shifting rod and the positions of these pins are determined by the The telescopic joints permit of the independent rotation of the shaft by each of the handles. By adjusting the screws 25 the angular movement of the shaft imparted by each lifting rod will be such as to open the valve an amount proportional to the distance the ashes are to be moved.

When employing a fan for'establishing a I current of air through the conveying condult the flow of motive fluid to motor 33 of the fan is controlled by a valve mechanism 10 similar to that shown inFig. 3,'the mov able member of the mechanism being cone nected to an arm 19 on the shaft 20 which is operated by connections to each ash inlet, the amplitude of the rotation of the shafts being proportioned to the position of the respective inlets along the conduit as hereinbefore described.

As shown in Fig. 4, the shifting of the valve controlling the flow of steam to the nozzle 8 or the starting of any other form of apparatus employed for creating a current through the ash conduit, may be effected by the removal of the plug from the hopper in front of the ash pit. In this construction, a pivotally mounted arm 26 is connected to the plug of each hopper and is provided with a projection 26 adapted when the plug is thrown to open position as indicated by the dotted lines, to strike against an adjustable abutment 27 carried by the pivotally mounted arm 28. In the form shown, this adjustable abutment consists of a screw passing through the arm 28. On the shaft 29 extending along parallel with the conduit, are secured a series of disks 30 corresponding in number to the hoppers connected with the ash conduit; these disks are provided with pins 30 against which the arm 28 will bear and when moved by the opening of the plug, will turn the disks through an arc whose length will depend upon the adjustment of the abutment. On the shaft 29 is also secured an arm 31 adapted to be connected by suitable means to a device for controlling the means employed for initiating a current through the conduit. When steam jets are employed for creating such current as hereinbefore described, this arm is connected by a link 32 to the stem 14; of the cylindrical member of the roto-reciprocatin valve mechanism hereinbefore described. controlling mechanism, such as above described, is arranged adjacent to each of the hoppers connected with the conveyer and the adjustable abutment of each mechanism is adjusted to effect such an angular movement of the shaft as will impart an opening movement to the valve mechanism proportional to the distance of the several hoppers from the discharge end of the conduit.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 an auxiliary current producing means may be employed in plants where conduits of considerable length are required. Generally, a single current producing means will be effective to create an efiicient current in a conduit not greater than eighty or ninety feet. When a conduit of greater length is required and if desired in a conduit of a length less than ninety feet, a nozzle 8 may be connected to the conduit at a point intermediate its ends.

A valve mechanism (indicated at 33) preferably similar in construction to that hereinbefore described is employed. This valve has its stem connected to the shaft 20*, extending along the outer section or extension 1 of the conduit, and means preferably similar to that herein described are provided at each inlet hopper 2 for rotating the shaft,

the respective mechanisms being adjusted to so shift the valve mechanism that the steam passing through the nozzle'8 will produce a current proportional to the distance from the hopper to be opened to the nozzle 8. It will be understood that when ashes are fed into any hopper connected to the extension of the conduit, steam should be supplied to the nozzle 8 so as to create a current in the main conduit; this can be done by pulling up one of the handles 24.

It is characteristic of the method heretofore employed that the flow of steam into the conduit whereby the current of air is produced, is constant, and the end of travel of the material along the conduit will be progressively slower in proportion to the distance of the point at which the material is charged into the conduit from the delivery end of the latter, whereas in the improvement described herein, the quantity of steam employed for producing the current will vary with the distance of the point of charging the ashes into the conduit from the delivery end, but the rate of movement of the ashes will be constant regardless of the distance of the charging polnt.

I claim herein as my invention 1. The method herein described of conveyingdisintegrated material from a plurality of separated points through a conduit to a common point which consists in charging the material into said conduit at said points successively and successively creating currents of fluid through the conduit having conveying capacities proportional to the distance of such, charging points from. the point of discharge from the conduit.

2. In a plant for conveying disintegrated material, the combination of a conduit having a plurality of openings through which material may be fed into the conduit, means for establishing a current of fluid through the conduit and means at each inlet for proportioning the carrying capacity of such current to the distance from each of said openings to the point of discharge of the material from said conduit.

3. In a, plant for conveying disintegrated material, the combination of a conduit having a plurality of openings through which material may be fed into the conduit, means for establishing a current of fluid through the conduit, and means arranged adjacent to each charging opening adapted to so regulate the current producing means that the current established by the operation of any regulating means will have a carrying capacity proportional to the distance of travel of the material through the conduit.

4. In a plant for conveying disintegrated material, the combination of a conduit having a plurality of openings through which material may be fed into the conduit; plugs for closing said openings, means for establishing a current of fluid through said conduit, means operable by said plugs for regulating the current creating means and adapted to so regulate the current producing means that the current established on the shifting of any of the plugs will be propormaterial may be fed into the conduit, means for creating a current of fluid through the conduit, a shaft extending along the conduit, connections from the shaft to the current controlling means, and means arranged adjacent to each hopper for turning the shaft, the means at successive hoppers from the delivery end of the conduit being adapted to impart a larger turning movement to the shaft. v

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

LOUIS ELLMAN. 

